Experts urge caution when putting health data in the cloud

Healthcare has become a favorite target for criminals, and some medical organizations are reacting by looking at outside providers to keep their data secure. But jumping to the cloud without first taking some precautions can be a mistake, experts say.

Last month, Salesforce introduced its Salesforce Health Cloud service, a cloud-based patient relationship management solution that integrates data from health records, wearables, and other sources and allows healthcare providers to access this information any time, any where.

The health care system requires that many different organizations have some degree of access to patient data, meaning that the security of the entire system depends on its weakest link. Moving to a provider like Salesforce will, in most cases, provide a higher level of security than organizations can typically manage on their own.